{"id":198494,"date":"2026-01-29T07:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/senators-explore-off-ramps-to-prevent-a-shutdown-as-democrats-lay-out-dhs-reforms-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T07:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:51:20","slug":"senators-explore-off-ramps-to-prevent-a-shutdown-as-democrats-lay-out-dhs-reforms-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/senators-explore-off-ramps-to-prevent-a-shutdown-as-democrats-lay-out-dhs-reforms-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators explore off-ramps to prevent a shutdown as Democrats lay out DHS reforms – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014 Senators met privately on Wednesday to discuss off-ramps to prevent a government shutdown<\/a> this weekend, with both parties recognizing that a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security cannot pass<\/a> in its current form.
A recent funding deal that passed the House last week has been upended by the DHS killing<\/a> of Alex Pretti <\/a>in Minnesota over the weekend \u2014 and the subsequent public outcry, which prompted Democrats and a top Republican to say the department should not be funded without policy changes.
The deadline is Friday at 11:59 p.m. ET, leaving little time to hash out a solution that can achieve the 60 votes needed in the Senate.
One idea that has gained traction: a short-term funding bill for DHS, while the two parties negotiate changes to the department, along with the five remaining appropriations bills to fund the rest of the government through Sept. 30.
\u201cIt\u2019s an item that has been discussed on both sides,\u201d said GOP Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D.
But he added that it will only proceed \u201cif the president is on board first.\u201d The White House has not commented on the idea.
\u201cWe\u2019re open. We recognize that if we do nothing, then we have a government shutdown, which nobody wants,\u201d added Rounds, who has been speaking with Democrats about possible off-ramps. \u201cIf we get five of the six bills across the finish line, with House cooperation, that\u2019s funding really close to in excess of 90% of the government, with basically only Homeland left.\u201d
Multiple Republican senators said they\u2019d be supportive of that approach \u2014 but only if the White House supports it.
\u201cWe have to have an open mind on the options. And obviously one that we\u2019re talking about is the five bills goal, and we do some work on DHS,\u201d said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. \u201cBut obviously, the White House has to decide and tell us what they want.\u201d
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., kept the door open Wednesday when asked about the idea of five bills and a short-term funding bill for DHS (also called a continuing resolution or \u201cCR\u201d). But he indicated that the onus would be on the Democrats to cut a deal with the White House.
\u201cThese are all hypotheticals at this point, and I would reserve optionality to consider that,\u201d Thune said after a Senate GOP lunch meeting in response to a question from NBC News. \u201cBut I think the best path forward, as I said, is to keep the package intact. And if there are things that the Democrats want, the administration can agree with them about, then let\u2019s do that.\u201d
\u201cOne thing I do know,\u201d Thune said. \u201cAnd that is that a government shutdown is not in anybody\u2019s interest \u2014 whether it\u2019s a partial one or a six-bill one or a one-bill one.\u201d
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused ICE of waging \u201cstate-sanctioned thuggery\u201d and laid out three demands to overhaul DHS that he said Democrats are \u201cunited\u201d behind: End \u201croving patrols\u201d and tighten rules on warrants for arrests; enforce accountability with a \u201cuniform code of conduct”; and require agents to remove their masks, carry ID and wear body cameras.
Schumer, who is pushing Thune to strip out the DHS bill and vote on the rest of the package, sidestepped when asked if he\u2019d support a stopgap bill for DHS while his demands are negotiated.
\u201cFirst, if funding lapses, it\u2019s all because of Leader Thune,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cIt\u2019s on his back. He could easily fund 96% of the budget by simply putting the five bills on the floor. As I said, you can just do that by taking DHS out, which you can do by an amendment. And given the need to do this, we could very quickly negotiate a bipartisan proposal of DHS to end violence.\u201d
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he wants Republicans to agree to significant safeguards on ICE operations, including requirements for judicial warrants for arrests, mandatory body cameras and civil liability for officers who break the law<\/a>.
But Blumenthal added that he would be open to the idea of passing the five bills, with DHS funding moving forward as a CR.
It would be a \u201clast resort to avoid a shutdown, but there has to be some agreements on reforms,\u201d said Blumenthal, a former Connecticut attorney general. \u201cMy priority is safeguards to protect against the kind of physical violence and violation of rights that we\u2019ve seen so flagrantly in real time on the streets and neighborhoods of America.\u201d
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, has been a prominent GOP critic of DHS operations in Minnesota and called for a hearing with DHS leaders. He said Wednesday that ICE shouldn\u2019t get more funds without reforms.
\u201cI don\u2019t want to defund ICE, but I\u2019m not sure I want to give them billions and billions more without any kind of signs of there are going to be some rules of the game, and there will be an independent investigation\u201d into Pretti\u2019s shooting, Paul said on Fox Business.
Conservative Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he agreed with the approach Rounds laid out. Both serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee that controls government funding.
\u201cAt this juncture, the smart play is to carve out the Homeland Security bill and we can fight over that,\u201d he said, \u201cbut in the meantime, try to do a CR [on DHS] and pass the other bills.\u201d
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said of the idea: \u201cThat\u2019s got to come from the White House. If they OK it, I guess it would work.\u201d
The idea also has its share of skeptics, including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who said: \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be all or nothing.\u201d
He predicted that Trump won\u2019t endorse the idea of splitting off DHS: \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to support it.\u201d
Even if senators do strike an 11th-hour agreement, there still could be a funding lapse. Before the Pretti killing, the House last week sent the Senate a six-bill package that funded the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Homeland Security and other agencies through the end of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
Any changes the Senate makes to that funding package would need to go back to the House, which is on recess this week and not slated to return to Washington until Monday. A brief funding lapse until early next week would have minimal practical impact if agencies have confidence it\u2019d be quickly resolved.
That would mean buy-in from the House. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he didn\u2019t think decoupling the bills could pass the lower chamber.
\u201cI think there\u2019s a real question whether the House possibly could pass those bills separately,\u201d Cornyn said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a miracle we got this far.\u201d
Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
Scott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeWASHINGTON \u2014 Senators met privately on Wednesday to discuss off-ramps to prevent a government shutdown this weekend, with both parties recognizing that a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security cannot pass in its current form.A recent funding deal that passed the House last week has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-198494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}